Fourteen Years, and Still Going Strong

Witness for Peace celebrates fourteen years of holding Ann Arbor’s Jewish community publicly accountable for their support of a Zionist (i.e. Jewish racist) state. It is with a smile of contentment when we realize how our message has morphed over the years. Initially, we organized “as Jews (and friends)”, opposed to the “occupation” of Palestine. Later, after reading Paul Eisen’s “Jewish Power” and following Gilad Atzmon’s blog, we recognized the truth in his definition of Zionism: “a Jewish Tribal Preservation Project.” We stopped self-defining as “Pro-Palestinian” and became more accurately “anti-Israel”. “For Palestine to Live, Israel Must Die” by Richard Hugus was an important and vital essay in this transition. We have learned by our mistakes. Our eyes have been opened and we recognize the Controlled Opposition in groups who have yet to realize the corruption evident in Jewish Power, and who not only refuse to discuss the topic, but clearly forbid anyone else to.

Surf the websites of Jewish Voice for Peace, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Code Pink, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Electronic Intifada, and a host of others to see if Jewish Power is discussed. You just won’t find it. Ask any of the leaders of these groups, like we did, to stand vigil with us. Our money says you’ll get hostile responses (if any at all): What? Hold the Jewish Community responsible for the crimes of Israel? It’s not THEIR fault!

But it is. And peace group members need to understand this. Malcolm X certainly did when he refused whites to join his Organization of Afro-American Unity. He understood that the racism that was tearing America apart originated in the white community. And likewise, the racism that is tearing Palestine apart originates just as clearly in the Jewish community. Why else would Jewish communities like Beth Israel Congregation fly the Israeli flag from its altar, pray for the state of Israel, and take Jewish children on junkets where they are posed with armed Israeli soldiers atop military vehicles?

Memory Lane

Some WfP members attended a meeting of a local peace group this week and it was like déjà vu all over again: they are bringing in the Jewish peace activist Alice Rothchild to further burnish “the occupation” in the minds of these good people. They will be instructed to “say Zionists, not Jews”, and they will be taught the horrors of “the Holocaust” and how they should “never forget.” And they will leave her lecture wondering: How could such an innocent, victimized people support a state so cruel to the Palestinians? Hint to all: the answer just could be contained in the question.

Reminder: Eat-a-Cheeseburger Day Approaches

The 8th Annual International Bill Henry Eat-a-Cheeseburger day falls out on Saturday, September 30 this year. Readers are welcome to join us at our weekly vigil on the sidewalks outside the Beth Israel Congregation at 9:30 AM, and to share a cheeseburger later in the day in commemoration of the man who ” … quite possibly saved an eight-year-old boy from a life of ‘Jewish chauvinism and exclusivism'” This year we will be joined by a Guest Celebrity Vigiler whose name is currently being withheld at their request, pending an attempt by that person to travel to Palestine.

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Henry Herskovitz
Witness for Peace
America First Not Israel
Five vigilers
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